Fighting for Place: The Rhetoric of Preservation in a Gentrifying Urban Neighborhood

<p>This paper looks at how preservationists in Oregon Hill, a gentrifying neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, appropriated the identity of its working class residents, particularly through claims on a particular cluster of houses. By reframing the meaning of the houses, from homes to sites of historic significance, the preservationists began to “write” themselves into their environment. That is, by engaging the site of the houses both temporally (through narrative) and spatially (by establishing political boundaries), preservationists carved out a space for themselves in the neighborhood. This paper addresses the problems with this process, including the preservationists’ apparent lack of regard for a viable community as anything more than artifact, but also their masking of racial tensions in the neighborhood. Ultimately, though, it shows that preservation is a progressive act, and further, that place, rather than a representation of either progress or preservation, is actually the scene of the dialectic between both.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Libby, Kelley

Contributors dc:contributor

• David Coogan
• Laura Browder
• Elizabeth Hodges
• John Accordino

• gentrification
• identity
• displacement
• rhetoric
• Oregon Hill
• progress
• preservation
• Arts and Humanities
• English Language and Literature

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/85

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1084